Constantly switch the timeslot. Air episodes out of order. Friday nights. Executive meddling. Lack of promotion. These are but a few of the ways TV networks have been known to screw over their most beloved shows. So, as much as we might want to bitch about NBC’s treatment of Community, the Greendale Gang, who will soon begin their fifth season, has it easy compared to these 10 shows. (Note: I left out The Tonight Show and Arrested Development, two shows that got boned, yes, but still have done pretty well for themselves.)

1. Freaks and Geeks

The crown jewel of the network interference bunch. Freaks and Geeks was slotted into the doomed-before-it-even-began timeslot of Saturday at 8 p.m. Its competition: COPS, Early Edition, ABC Big Picture Show, and people having social lives. Not only that, but NBC aired episodes out of order, including most infamously, “Kim Kelly Is My Friend,” which they refused to broadcast. That episode, as well as two others, wouldn’t surface until a year later, on Fox Family Channel of all places. Even Veronica’s Closet was treated better.

2. Better Off Ted

Speaking of beloved cult shows: Victor Fresco’s Better Off Ted came out of nowhere to become one of the smartest, funniest sitcoms of the 2000s, so of course ABC treated it like sh*t. Actually, let me rephrase, ABC paid more mind to The Bachelorette than they did Better Off Ted, so they treated it worse than sh*t. No promotion, a second season that didn’t start until December, an episode that aired on New Year’s Day, two episodes per night but only for two weeks, etc. Better Off Ted was to ABC as black people were to Veridian Dynamics.

3. Firefly

You know the story by now: Fox hated the original pilot, so they made Joss Whedon and company write a new one, only giving them a single weekend to do so. “The Train Job” went before “Serenity,” which didn’t air until the end of the show’s run, even though it was supposed to go first. Then only 11 of Firefly‘s 14 episodes were shown before Fox said buh-bye and shuffled Mal off to Sci Fi. Firefly never had a chance, and it was never heard from again.

4. Hey Arnold!

Hey Arnold! was arguably Nickelodeon’s greatest golden-era animated series, but it still suffered an ill-timed demise, courtesy of a cinematic dispute. Creator Craig Bartlett wanted The Jungle Movie to be the show’s first theatrical feature, but Nick had other plans and made the Hey Arnold! team release Arnold Saves the Neighborhood, a.k.a. Hey Arnold!: The Movie, instead. This pissed Bartlett off, but he continued to work on The Jungle Movie, as well as a project for Cartoon Network called Party Wagon. One of Nick’s conditions, however, was that Bartlett had to sign an exclusivity contract with them; when he refused, Hey Arnold! was cancelled, and “The Journal” was left as a sort-of cliffhanger finale that never connected to the aborted The Jungle Movie.

5. Wonderfalls

There are many good reasons to hate Joan of Arcadia, but here’s the BEST reason: it killed Wonderfalls. Bryan Fuller’s wonderfully imaginative Niagara Falls-set series about a woman who speaks to animal figurines was developed for the 2003 season, but it didn’t premiere until a year later, in 2004, because Fox was afraid of launching it at the same time as the similar-themed Joan of Arcadia. When it did finally make it to air, out of order mind you, it was slotted on Friday nights, at the same time as Joan…Yeah. After the third episode, Wonderfalls moved to Thursday, but Fox never told anyone about the switch, and it died after episode four. The one saving grace: Wonderfalls‘ demise led to Pushing Daisies.

I caught it on the UK Fox channel a couple of years ago, randomly shown on weekend mornings. I’d never heard of it. I’m pretty certain I’ve now seen every episode at least twice, and regretted not a single second.

Another show ABC severely botched was “Clerks The Animated Series” when they aired the episodes out of order. They went on to only air two total before cancelling it.
I’ll let Wikipedia explain:
“ABC aired the fourth episode first, as opposed to the intended first episode, and then aired the second episode despite the fact that the second episode is the ‘flashback’ episode, and derives much of its humor from the fact that it flashes back to the first episode.”

Huge Clerks fan, but the Animated Series was a bit underwhelming (except the Korean animators bit of course). However, it would probably be much more popular now, the weird superfluous and unrealistic style is much more common these days.

I’m sorry but this list begins and ends with Futurama. Fox completely screwed them over with the schedule shifts and dumping it at 7:30, airing episodes out of order (if at all), deeming it to be a children’s show for some unknown reason and applying different standards rules to it than Simpsons, and not officially cancelling it for years so that it couldn’t be picked up for new episodes elsewhere for a long time.

Futurama is kind of like the one that finally made it. It certainly got jerked around but in the end, it went out on its own terms and I can watch it over and over again on Netflix every day. Incredibly awesome show. Glad it survived the wash.

Yeah Titus was actually one of, if not my favourite comedy when it aired. If it came out now on like FX or some other channel like that I bet it would be critically acclaimed. Plus like, Stacy Keach y’all, Stacy Keach.

2/3rd of this list reads like my TV viewing habits for about a decade, which may explain why I normally don’t watch new shows when they start airing but wait for at least a season (and also why I am convinced that I like things that mostly no one else likes).

I loved the Drew Carey Show, but it did last a solid (checks wikipedia)……NINE Years. Wow, that’s longer than I would have thought. I’d like it to have a streaming or DVD option but apparently music rights have held that up.

I miss it so much. Probably moreso than any other TV show that I enjoyed which received an early cancellation. (And this despite my feelings that the 3rd season was really weak compared to the stellar 2nd.)

Is it just me or was Happy Endings tied to Apt. 23 no matter what. It wasnt so much Happy Endings failed as Apt 23 did and caused Happy Endings cancelation along with it. ABC tends to tie shows together like this.

AD got three seasons on Fox, it just never got the audience. The masses just didn’t want to watch this group of truly horrible people be mean to each other week in and week out. They dumped the final episodes, but Fox gave them three seasons to find an audience and they never could.

It really didn’t. Like most sitcoms, it took a few episodes to really get it’s feet under it… but when it did it was a genuinely really funny show. Remember season 1 of P&R? Season 1 of Apt 23 was better than it.

If I may I’d also like to add Kings to the list. An amazing show that surprised the hell out of me when fans didn’t eat it up. A modern retelling of the story of David? Shouldn’t the Christians have been all over it?

I would need to go find it, but on a podcast Titus said everything was going fine for the show and then he basically told a network exec to go fuck themselves (paraphrasing) and they responded by destroying his show.

Yeah, he’s certainly doing fine. Still a successful touring comedian. Hangs out with Bill Burr and helps him fix his truck. Sounds like things a decent guy does. I enjoyed the shit out that show. Stacey Keach was especially great.

NBC had actually canceled it BEFORE Hartman’s death, after jerking it around in different timeslots and putting crap like “The Single Guy” on Thursday night instead. Then they renewed it. Then he died. Lovitz wasn’t the same, but the episode where they got to say goodbye was great.

Don’t forget they moved it something like 17(?) times over its whole run. Paul Simms mentions it in one of the commentaries, and it’s some ludicrous number. On top of it, there was minimal marketing for the show, but then again what were the ads going to say: “NewsRadio – airing sometime?”

Back to the well, I realize….but Terriers was undone by the worst marketing campaign in the history of television. I mean — it’s hard to screw up a promo about an awesome series with great characters that uses adorable DOGS prominently in the promos, but dagnumbit, Fx managed to do so.

I don’t think HBO screwed Deadwood over though. I could be wrong. I thought it was getting too expensive to make and stars like Olyphant and McShane were getting too-lucrative-to-ignore offers from other outlets.

Maybe it’s just my age and I pulled away from Nickelodeon a little after Hey Arnold came around (I definitely saw at least the entire 1st season) , but to me Ren and Stimpy was the best from that era. And if that show was too “out there” for ya, Rocko certainly was great. Eh, maybe it’s just my sense of humor.

The Critic has the rare distinction of being screwed by two networks. ABC for cancelling it after the first season, and FOX cancelling it after the second despite strong ratings strictly because they didn’t actually own the show and couldn’t make as much money off of it down the line, which is why King of the Hill took its place.

I loved Titus and always thought Stacy Keach was a force on there. Angel is another example but you left out that part of the cancellation was because WB had a reboot of Dark Shadows brewing and thought they could slot one vampire show in for another.

The Black Donnellys got a massive screwjob by NBC. The pilot was gripping, look at the cast (Hello Olivia), and then realize that it was the most watched online series for NBC for a year and they didn’t even burn off the rest of the episodes, just released them on dvd.

The Black Donnelly’s was pretty phenomenal. I wish it would have been on FX instead, perhaps it would have been given a fighters chance.

That show was so f’d over the final two episodes didn’t even air on t.v. (online only).

Yes, Dub, it was only 1 season. I would recommend it, but at the same time, you may be pissed after watching it knowing there are so many unanswered questions that lined up a 2nd season that will never come.

I was gonna say that. And Stargate Universe right as it was getting good.

And I know I’ll be alone in this, but Caprica. It’s less that the network didn’t give them a fair shake, it’s that they canceled them in the middle of the stories. Thankfully they stopped doing that and went to truncated seasons instead, but it still makes it to where I haven’t even given any of their newer shows (when they can squeeze one in between terrible nerd-baiting reality shows and terrible ghost-hunting shows).

Party Down was goddamn gold. Man that is one of the shows that I couldn’t believe wasn’t greenlit for a 3rd season.

@cokebabies – I believe that STARZ was waffling (or not being clear) about having a 3rd season, hence Adam Scott committing to Parks and Recs. That may have been the case for other actors as well. (I’m pretty sure that’s what happened – but my memory is shoddy. It’s something like that.)

I watched Titus when it was on, the 2 things in the banner pic were the biggest reasons. She later went on to be on Lost and subsequently get kicked off because of the DUI her and Michelle Rodriguez were involved in.

Another fun Titus fact: The little brother Tommy (Zack Ward) was the bully Farkus in A Christmas Story!

I love the BBC for many reasons, but they utterly and comprehensively screwed Rome. Basically, they pulled out of funding it because Reasons, and twenty years of history had to be compressed into a single season.

The set burned down during the writers’ strike after the end of season two, and the ratings had slipped enough by that time that they didn’t justify rebuilding it. IIRC HBO were only just starting to grok the sex+history=ratings formula, and probably weren’t sure they could keep making money with it.

Another show that was ended too early (not sure if it was because they got jerked around) was The War at Home. It was pretty solid for a fluffy family show. Also, that red headed daughter was smoking hot.

I got into Sym-Bionic Titan too late but watched the earlier episodes on line. The reason why they said it wasn’t continued was because the female character changed clothes too much to be able to promote a toy line.

Andy Barker: P.I. (all 6 episodes played in a different time slot I think); Adventures of Brisco Country Jr. (let’s put it on primetime Friday night when its target demo isn’t home); The Critic (The Simpsons would be a natural lead-in you say? Nah.).

Andy Barker: P.I. (all 6 episodes played in a different time slot I think); Adventures of Brisco Country Jr. (let’s put it on primetime Friday night when its target demo isn’t home); The Critic (The Simpsons would be a natural lead-in you say? Nah.).

Andy Barker: P.I. (all 6 episodes played in a different time slot I think); Adventures of Brisco Country Jr. (let’s put it on primetime Friday night when its target demo isn’t home); The Critic (The Simpsons would be a natural lead-in you say? Nah.).

Kyle XY was also royally screwed. Granted it was a bit of a Dark Angel rip off but it freely acknowledged that and it was still very good. It had the highest ratings ABC Family had achieved in it’s life time but the producers of the show got into a fight with the network and the network just murdered the show by delaying the next season almost an year and barely giving any promotion

Home Movies, first introduced me to the delight that is H Job Benjamin. Also Better Off Ted was epic. I watched the first episode, thought it was awful, inexplicably watched the next few episodes and was hooked… how weird.

There are so many shows we can list here and be upset about mistreatment and early cancellation. All you need to remember is this: “According To Jim” got eight seasons…my point? You shouldn’t be surprised.

Just finished Don’t trust the B and currently watching Freaks and Geeks. Both were great and have to thank the commenters on Uproxx for constantly recommending them. Of course, I am the only person in the world who didn’t miss an episode of Greg the Bunny.

But… but I liked Joan of Arcadia. That being said I liked Wonderfalls a heck of a lot more.
I’m on the fence about Better Off Ted. I liked the characters (most of them, NOT the daughter. Precocious kids just ain’t mah thing) and most of the story-lines but there was something just off about it to me.

Firefly had the potential to be an all time great, but as stated in the article, it was not to be. A lot of the internet outcry in support of Firefly likely comes from fans wanting to see where they could go with that universe and all it’s colorful characters. That said, Serenity was excellent, and successfully gave the show a proper finale (though it did leave things open for a future series/ movie).

I’m kind of surprised nobody has mentioned it yet, but Undergrads, the show Troi got his avatar from, sadly never got a second season. We need to get in an uproar over that again, cause that show was hilarious.

After catching up with “Apartment 23″ on Netflix, I’m pissed beyond belief that they screwed that show. On another note, I guess I’m the only one that is still upset about “Flash forward” being canned. It was going places, damnit!!!!

While it doesn’t deserve to be on this list over the others, I will miss the hell out of Ugly Americans. It never seemed to have a chance, though it did last 2 seasons. It was basically a grimier Futurama, but set in modern New York, with more of a focus on horror than sci fi. I loved that show.

I’m not going to wade through the comments so I don’t know if someone already made these points but: Firefly did get screwed by the network but they got a damn good movie to tie off the loose ends. And let’s get real, it ain’t coming back and it shouldn’t come back. If it had continued it probably would have gotten shitty by season four.

And it did suck that Angel got scrapped but I actually did like the ending with the barely alive gang facing off against the hordes of hell. One of Angel’s things was the “neverending battle” and the finale played into that quite well. I know there was a comic book sequel but I’d like to think they all got slaughtered fighting the good fight (after Angel took out the dragon.)

Man I totally agree with almost all of the titles on this list (which Is rare for me). The few I did not get into were probably for the reasons mentioned. On a side note, regarding the whole Dharma and Greg comment in Titus, that whole seperation and cheating arc on the show absolutely did not work for me. I watched it anyway because I loved the show, but it really did tarnish the true love vibe for me.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say Firefly would have been canceled even if the series ran in order and Fox aired all 14 episodes. Friday night isn’t the worst night in the world for geeky TV (ie X-Files and Millennium), sometimes viewers just don’t know what’s good.